Remember the Phosphenes
by enigmatic.typewriter
Summary: "Your fate," she breathes quietly, "will make my own a tragedy." - NejiTen - Mostly drama with a mix of humor and angst. - INCOMPLETE - Please follow for updates!
1. One

**AN: **This one got written on my thirty minute break. I may have been slightly lazy with this one. #sorry

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**Cosmic Love | Florence + the Machine**

_"A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes."_

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Theoretically speaking, the Byakugan is practically all seeing. Blind spot aside, there are few things the pearlescent eyes of Hyuuga Neji cannot perceive. He's the cold, and oftentimes indifferent one of Team Gai. He's not unbeatable, but his prowess is rivalled only by a certain Uchiha (Naruto included, though this doesn't really warrant the same awe).

Tenten is Konoha's weapon mistress. There is no target she cannot hit and no problem that cannot be solved with a kunai in hand. She's the cheerful tomboy with an infamous tendency to throw pointed objects when aggravated.

Lee thinks he sees a pattern here. Unfortunately, his teammates do not. Because for all their prowess in the field, they're completely blind when it comes to matters of the heart.


	2. Two

**AN: **Repost. It was written in third person, which now feels like an alien language to me. True story: This was spent two years wasting away on my computer because I couldn't figure out how I was going to finish it.

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**Keep Holding On | Avril Lavigne**

_"You're not alone, together we stand."_

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_Nobody deserved this._

At least, that's what Tenten thought as she glared daggers into the back of Hiashi's _stupid_ head. They'd been training, as per usual, when aforementioned clan leader had rudely interrupted, taking his nephew forcefully by the shoulder as he unleashed a malicious flurry of insults. The words were spat with such undisguised hatred that Neji recoiled minutely, his look of pained self-loathing evident even as he turned away. Tenten felt her jaw drop slightly, the kunoichi's topaz-speckled gaze finding Neji's. In that moment of tense silence, with Hiashi still towering before them; something inside her shattered. Seeing Neji burn holes of shame into the upturned earth gave her newfound strength, and suddenly she was standing between them, meeting Hiashi's livid stare with the fierce determination that so often sent Rock Lee fleeing for his youthful life.

_"Enough."_

If he'd been born anyone but Hyuuga Neji, he'd probably have been picking his jaw off the ground right about then. As it was, Tenten could actually count each individual strand of grass, hear the sound of birdsong, feel the beating of her own heart, which was oddly calm. Time seemed to stand still. There came a sharp intake of breath -from Neji or Hiashi- she wasn't certain, but it broke whatever spell had been cast upon them. With a look of cold fury, the older Hyuuga shut his mouth abruptly, his vicious assault on Neji momentarily forgotten.

_"What,"_ he inquired, his voice chillingly soft, "did you just say to me?"

She was truly fearless, maybe even foolish, but fearless nonetheless.

"I said, _enough."_

The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, a blinding pain burning the left side of her face.

He'd struck her straight across the face.

There was a distinct yell of outrage, and the shocked weapon mistress was yanked backwards by the collar of her shirt. Tenten wondered if that had been Neji's doing, although he was currently a blur of spinning chakra, white hot fury radiating off him in waves. Hiashi too, had become a rotating blue sphere, seemingly hellbent on knocking the cognitive daylights out of his nephew. With the affluent grace of which his clan was known for, he thrust Neji unceremoniously against a jutting rock, coming out of his Kaiten as he did so.

"You," he panted, wiping away a rivulet of blood with a long, silken sleeve, "are _insignificant_, _pathetic_, and above all, _weak_." Then, rounding on Tenten (who was gingerly assessing the damage he'd done to her face), Hiashi lowered his voice to a mere hiss.

"And you... _you_ are nothing but dirt."

With a final sneer, he swept past her, striding away from them as if he were some ethereal god and not a mere mortal man. If the silence didn't kill her, Neji's bitterness surely would. Even as she looked towards him, her topaz eyes questioning, he fixed her with the same livid glare reserved for none save Hiashi, unspent anger still thick in the air around him. Tenten found that words were beyond her as she gently went over his injuries, the kunoichi's fingertips ghosting hesitantly over his skin. With the air of one being subject to great pain, Neji wrenched himself free, fighting to keep the hatred from his voice. Truthfully, she'd very nearly put him into cardiac arrest. First by defending him, then by forcing him to watch as she was promptly struck down by his own uncle.

He wasn't about to let her do that again any time soon.


	3. Three

**AN:** So, I've been making a _lot_ of these songfics lately and well, here's another one for you to cry, laugh, and fangirl over.

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**The Last Goodbye | Billy Boyd**

_This is how I imagined the final parting between Neji and Tenten. _

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"It will be as it is fated."

They stand in the waning light of a crescent moon, waiting to greet the bleak, midwinter dawn. Neji is his usual stoic self, lips pressed into a thin line, pearlescent eyes all seeing and scrutinizing. He's weary, though. The occasional quiver in his habitual fluidity, and how his skin has taken on a near-translucent pallor is evidence of one too many sleepless nights. In comparison, Tenten appears dishevelled. Her hair tumbles down her back in snarled, chestnut tangles, and the kunoichi's clothes are beyond salvage. Slowly, painfully, a smile creeps across her face, but it's merely a ghost of the real thing, and Neji thinks that if it could, his heart would sigh. They've reached the crossroads of their undefined relationship. It's the final fork in the road which, come morning light, will lead Tenten one way and Neji, the other.

"Your fate," she breathes quietly, "will make my own a tragedy."


End file.
